Posts Tagged ‘Food’
Episode 2: Handmade Tortellini
I was recently in the Mosel wine region where, guided by a local winemaker, I discovered some of the exciting places shaping local food and wine culture. Die Graifen is one of those places. Part restaurant, part vintage furniture shop and part winery, this place has a special atmosphere to it that comes from their owners love for what they do.
After two visits and two delicious meals, Matthias Decker (the owner), invited me for an off-hours visit. On a Friday afternoon I joined him in the kitchen while he prepared some handmade tortellini for supper and explained the concept behind Die Graifen and their use of tasty international cuisine with local ingredients. I filmed Matthias making the tortellini and decided to make this the second episode of my food, wine and travel video series.
Restaurant: Die Graifen - graifen.de
Address: Wolfer Weg 11, Traben-Trarbach (Mosel), Germany.
Phone: (+49) 06541-811075
Episode 1: Discovering Hungary
Spent 5 days in Hungary discovering its multicultural food and wine culture. Travelled to Tokaj to taste deliciously sweet wines and fresh white wines. Stopped in Eger to learn about Bikavér and meet a group of fantastic wine makers. Finally wandered around Budapest and visited the glorious food market.
I’ve been wanting to do videos of my food and wine discovery trips for a while. This is my first attempt at it. This time I’ve decided to take my DSLR camera to Hungary and film as much as I could. When I came back I edited the footage and this is the final result. Let me know what you think!
The Delicious Umbria Food and Wine Competition
The first ever Umbria is for #winelovers event happened last week in Umbria in the green heart of Italy. With an exciting programme planned for the week this was a great opportunity to discover the region’s wines and their connection to the local food culture.
To make it even more interesting the #winelover group organized a Food & Wine Pairing Competition to better understand the richness of Umbria’s food and wine pairing. Here’s the competition menu with the different Italian dishes and the wines that better worked for each of them:
1. Frittatina Morbida al Tartufo della Valnerina
We started with a Frittatina Morbida al Tartufo della Valnerina, an egg-based dish, similar to an omelette or quiche, enriched with black truffles from the Valnerina valley in Umbria. A rich combination of flavors where the black truffle definitely stood out.
Best wines for this dish:
- FiorFiore 2010 Roccafiore (White) - 100% Grechetto
- Lamborghini (La Firorita) Trescone Umbria 2009 (Red) - Sangiovese, Merlot, Ciliegiolo
2. Risotto Allo Zafferano di Cascia e Guanciale Croccante
As a first course the Chef planned a Risotto with saffron and crisp Italian bacon. The crispy bacon added a different dimension to this simple dish and made it extra enjoyable. I could spend a whole day eating this crispy bacon.
Best wines for this dish:
- Colli Perugini Chiorri Rosato 2011 (Red) - Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon
- Adanti Arquata Montefalco Riserva 2008 (Red) - Sangiovese, Sagrantino, Barbera, Merlot, Cabernet
- Montefalco Rosso Scacciadiavoli 2009 (Red) - Sangiovese, Sagrantino, Merlot
3. Porchetta di Maialino Aromatica Bardata al Prosciutto
The main course was the highlight of the food and wine competition and one of the best foods I’ve had in Italy. A fabulous savoury, fatty and juicy boneless piglet roast covered with slices of bacon. Simply outstanding.
Best wines for this dish:
- Re del Sole LS08 Leonucci (Red) – Sagrantino
- Marchesi Antinori Cervaro della Sala Antinori 2011 (White) - Chardonnay, Grechetto
- La Palazzola Vin Santo Stefano Grilli 2005 (Sweet)
4. Crostata di Mele e Crema Cotta and Cheesecake
Finally dessert time. An Apple Custard Pie and a Ricotta, Chocolate, Raisins and Rhum Cake. A happy overdose of sugar created specifically to match the Umbrian Vin Santo (a style of italian sweet wine).
Best wine for the Crostata di Mele e Crema Cotta:
- Poggio Forno Cantina Neri 2011 - (Sweet) Grechetto, Sauvignon
Best wines for the Torta di Ricotta, Cioccolato, Uvetta e Rhum
- Sperello VinSanto Colli del Trasimeno Berioli 2011 (Sweet) - Trebbiano, Malvasia
- Grappa di Sagrantino Romanelli (Spirit)
The hosts
Fabien Lainé (a French Sommelier working in Norway) was in charge of coordinating the food and wine competition. With the help of Luciana Braz and other #winelovers they’ve pre-selected 70 wines (from a pool of around 200), organized the tasters in teams and collected the competition results. A great job, explained in more detail in Fabien’s blog.
Umbrian Chef, Matteo Barbarossa was in charge of creating four different dishes for the competition. With this mission, Matteo created a dynamic menu of local and delicious Umbrian food to match the region’s diverse array of wines.
Overall this a fantastic wine and food discovery experience in the heart of Italy. Umbria is definitely a fantastic food and wine destination and I can’t wait to go back and discover more.
Unforgettable Food and Wine at Castello delle Regine
I’m in the beautiful region of Umbria in Italy preparing for the first Umbria for #winelovers event that will take place in the next few days in Terni. It’s a great opportunity to discover the local food and wine culture of one of the most exciting Italian wine regions.
Today I had the opportunity to visit Castello delle Regine, a local winery making good to excellent Umbrian wines. All proven by the very good (and consistent) level of quality at the 2 comprehensive 2001 to 2006 vertical tastings of the 100% Sangiovese and the 100% Merlot. My favorite vintages were the 2001, 2002 and 2004 for the Sangiovese and the 2001 and 2005 for the Merlot. All showing great potential for a good pairing with food.
To test this we headed to the winery’s own Restaurant Podernovo for lunch. A meal with lots of different dishes (see below) where all the meat which came from the winery’s cow farm. Simply delicious ingredients and fantastic wine lunch that has again confirmed how amazing Italy can be when it comes to fantastic food and wine experiences.
Back to School at Cantina da Estrela
I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the Cantina da Estrela restaurant twice before, attending wine related events. This time I came here wanting to have lunch as a normal client and discovered that the experience is well worth the visit.
In one sentence
Go to this restaurant if you love good comfort food, if you’re interested in eating in a calm place that looks like an classic old school and if you don’t mind being served by restaurant students (that actually do a pretty good job!). Nice wine list. Price per person varies (based on on your opinion, really!) but should be between 20 to 25 euros per person (without wine).
The concept
One of the first interesting things about Cantina da Estrela is the fact that you can decide how much the food and the service are worth and (sorf of) pay the bill based on that. In reality you actually have a lower and a upper limit between which you can choose to pay based on your appreciation. Since all of the restaurant employees come from the Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo de Lisboa (Lisbon’s School of Hospitality), this gives you (and them) a way to continuously evaluate their work. It’s a clever (and attention grabbing) idea that I think should be applied in other restaurants.
